The tall, handsome Abdul Karim was just 24 years old when he arrived in England from Agra to wait at tables during Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee. An assistant clerk at Agra Central Jail, he suddenly became a personal attendant to the Empress of India herself. Within a year, he was established as an influential figure at court, becoming the queen's teacher, or Munshi, and instructing her in Urdu and Indian affairs. Devastated by the death of John Brown, her Scottish ghillie, the queen found a replacement in Karim, but her intense relationship with the Munshi led to a near-revolt in the royal household. Here the author of Spy Princess: The Life of Noor Inayat Khan examines how a young Indian Muslim came to play a central role at the heart of the empire even as independence movements in the subcontinent were growing.